The Southern Poverty Law Center has published a map indicating the number of hate groups in each state. The map allows users to choose their state and find out which groups are active. Hate groups included are the Ku Klux Klan, various “ministries”, the American National Socialist Party, and other Christian Identity and Neo-Nazi groups.

California leads the states in the number of active hate groups with 84 groups. Texas is next in line with 66 groups. Only two states are reported to have no active hate groups, Alaska and Hawaii.

The total number of active hate groups reported is 926. Perhaps most significant, the majority of all U.S. Hate Groups reside in only 17 states. Those state are generally considered “The Bible Belt” (being KS, OK, TX, MO, AR, LA, KY, TN, MS, AL, GA, FL, WV, VA, NC, and SC) and together they contain 483 of the 926 known and active hate groups. Is this a coincidence? I think not.